Rockfish Have Recovered

Commission May Extend '94 Season

The end to a successful story in fisheries management came this week when the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission declared striped bass ``fully recovered.''

That decision cleared the way for extended seasons for striped bass, which are also known as rockfish. It also confirms what many anglers had already thought.

``I think there are more rockfish now than there have been in 40 or 50 years. They should extend the season this year and they should make it uniform from Maine to North Carolina,'' said Irv Fenton of Newport News, who has been an avid striped bass fisherman for 43 years. ``I want to see a longer season, but I don't want to return to like it was in the 70s when people caught them night and day seven days a week. That's what got us in trouble.''

Virginia had enacted a moratorium in 1989 on catching striped bass after the fish's numbers dwindled throughout the 1980s. It was was lifted in the fall of 1991 and there have been split or consecutive 32-day seasons during the fall since.

``This does not mean the fishery opens in January,'' said Jack Travelstead, chief of fisheries management for the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. ``What it means is that without question the 1995 fishery will be an expanded version of the '93 and '94 fisheries.''

The recovery of the striped bass does not automatically extend the 1994 season.

The ASMFC, a 15-state federal commission that sets fishing regulations for all East Coast states, will consider Virginia's request for a lengthened 1994 rockfish season in June. The VMRC will put proposed regulations out for public comment then and set the fall 1994 regulations at its July meeting.

``There are more rockfish in the Chesapeake Bay ... than we have recorded history of,'' said William Pruitt, chairman of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. ``I don't know what the Indians had, but it's unbelievable.''

The VMRC is proposing a 50-percent increase in the commercial quota and a 15-day increase in the 32-day recreational season. Neither proposal has been reviewed by the ASMFC.

``Fishermen shouldn't count their fish before they hatch,'' Travelstead said. ``But they might want to start thinking about how they want those 47 days spread out.''

Several proposals have already been approved by the ASMFC:

* Eliminating the 36-inch maximum, keeping the two fish bag limit and the 18-inch minimum.

* Creating a year-round fishery with a 34-inch minimum size and a one fish daily bag limit for recreational anglers.

* Setting a 28-inch minimum size and a one-fish bag limit during a season of Oct. 1 through March.

In setting new regulations, the ASMFC will have to consider 11 jurisdictions from Massachusetts to North Carolina.

It is the Chesapeake Bay stock that migrates up and down the Atlantic Coast that is being declared recovered. The Hudson River stock has been recovered for a while. The Delaware stock is in an interim phase and the North Carolina stock is not recovered, Travelstead said.

Recreational anglers from Virginia Beach to Reedville have called for longer seasons for the last couple of years. They say striped bass populations have exploded to the point that the fish is often a nuisance when anglers are targeting other species like bluefish.

Fenton expressed special interest in the proposed October through March season because he said he thinks that will cut down the temptation for anglers to catch more than their daily limit. He also thinks that season would eliminate the weekend congestion brought on by last year's compressed four-day weekend fishing days.

``We think we have more than enough data now to justify those requests,'' Travelstead said. ``The tagging study in fall 1993 showed Virginia, Maryland and the Potomac River jurisdictions are not catching nearly as many fish as the ASMFC could allow us to catch.''

STRIPED BASS REGULATIONS

Having declared the striped bass ``fully recovered,'' the fishing commissions have approved and proposed several changes to the current fishing regulations.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has already approved:

* Eliminating the 36-inch maximum, keeping the two fish bag limit and the 18-inch minimum.

* Creating a year-round fishery with a 34-inch minimum size and a one fish daily bag limit for recreational anglers.

* Setting a 28-inch minimum size and a one-fish bag limit during a season of Oct. 1 through March.

The Virginia Marine Resources Commission is proposing to the ASMFC:

* A 50-percent increase in the commercial quota and a 15-day increase in the 32-day recreational season.